The Vanishing American Jew

The Vanishing American Jew
Author: Alan M. Dershowitz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 420
Release: 1998-09-08
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0684848988

Explores the meaning of Jewishness in light of the increasing assimilation of America's Jews and suggests ways to preserve Jewish identity.

The Jewish Americans

The Jewish Americans
Author: Beth S. Wenger
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 0385521391

Recounts the story of Jews in America, from the mid-seventeenth century to the present day, examining the contributions of the Jewish people to American culture, politics, and society.

The Jewish American Paradox

The Jewish American Paradox
Author: Robert H Mnookin
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2018-11-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1610397525

Who should count as Jewish in America? What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel? Can the American Jewish community collectively sustain and pass on to the next generation a sufficient sense of Jewish identity? The situation of American Jews today is deeply paradoxical. Jews have achieved unprecedented integration, influence, and esteem in virtually every facet of American life. But this extraordinarily diverse community now also faces four critical and often divisive challenges: rampant intermarriage, weak religious observance, diminished cohesion in the face of waning anti-Semitism, and deeply conflicting views about Israel. Can the American Jewish community collectively sustain and pass on to the next generation a sufficient sense of Jewish identity in light of these challenges? Who should count as Jewish in America? What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel? In this thoughtful and perceptive book, Robert H. Mnookin argues that the answers of the past no longer serve American Jews today. The book boldly promotes a radically inclusive American-Jewish community -- one where being Jewish can depend on personal choice and public self-identification, not simply birth or formal religious conversion. Instead of preventing intermarriage or ostracizing those critical of Israel, he envisions a community that embraces diversity and debate, and in so doing, preserves and strengthens the Jewish identity into the next generation and beyond.

American Jewish Year Book 2020

American Jewish Year Book 2020
Author: Arnold Dashefsky
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 808
Release: 2022-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3030787060

The American Jewish Year Book, which spans three different centuries, is the annual record of the North American Jewish communities and provides insight into their major trends. Part I of the current volume contains the lead article: Chapter 1, “Pastrami, Verklempt, and Tshoot-spa: Non-Jews’ Use of Jewish Language in the US” by Sarah Bunin Benor. Following this chapter are three on domestic and international events, which analyze the year’s events as they affect American Jewish communal and political affairs. Three chapters analyze the demography and geography of the US, Canada, and world Jewish populations. Part II provides lists of Jewish institutions, including federations, community centers, social service agencies, national organizations, synagogues, Hillels, camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. The final chapters present national and local Jewish periodicals and broadcast media; academic resources, including Jewish Studies programs, books, journals, articles, websites, and research libraries; and lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries. While written mostly by academics, this volume conveys an accessible style, making it of interest to public officials, professional and lay leaders in the Jewish community, as well as the general public and academic researchers. The American Jewish Year Book has been a key resource for social scientists exploring comparative and historical data on Jewish population patterns. No less important, the Year Book serves organization leaders and policy makers as the source for valuable data on Jewish communities and as a basis for planning. Serious evidence-based articles regularly appear in the Year Book that focus on analyses and reviews of critical issues facing American Jews and their communities which are indispensable for scholars and community leaders. Calvin Goldscheider, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Ungerleider Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies, Brown University They have done it again. The American Jewish Year Book has produced yet another edition to add to its distinguished tradition of providing facts, figures and analyses of contemporary life in North America. Its well-researched and easily accessible essays offer the most up to date scrutiny of topics and challenges of importance to American Jewish life; to the American scene of which it is a part and to world Jewry. Whether one is an academic or professional member of the Jewish community (or just an interested reader of all things Jewish), there is not another more impressive and informative reading than the American Jewish Year Book. Debra Renee Kaufman, Professor Emerita and Matthews Distinguished University Professor, Northeastern University

American Jewish Year Book 2019

American Jewish Year Book 2019
Author: Arnold Dashefsky
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 830
Release: 2020-08-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9783030403706

Part I of each volume will feature 5-7 major review chapters, including 2-3 long chapters reviewing topics of major concern to the American Jewish community written by top experts on each topic, review chapters on "National Affairs" and "Jewish Communal Affairs" and articles on the Jewish population of the United States and the World Jewish Population. Future major review chapters will include such topics as Jewish Education in America, American Jewish Philanthropy, Israel/Diaspora Relations, American Jewish Demography, American Jewish History, LGBT Issues in American Jewry, American Jews and National Elections, Orthodox Judaism in the US, Conservative Judaism in the US, Reform Judaism in the US, Jewish Involvement in the Labor Movement, Perspectives in American Jewish Sociology, Recent Trends in American Judaism, Impact of Feminism on American Jewish Life, American Jewish Museums, Anti-Semitism in America, and Inter-Religious Dialogue in America. Part II-V of each volume will continue the tradition of listing Jewish Federations, national Jewish organizations, Jewish periodicals, and obituaries. But to this list are added lists of Jewish Community Centers, Jewish Camps, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Museums, and Jewish honorees (both those honored through awards by Jewish organizations and by receiving honors, such as Presidential Medals of Freedom and Academy Awards, from the secular world). We expand the Year Book tradition of bringing academic research to the Jewish communal world by adding lists of academic journals, articles in academic journals on Jewish topics, Jewish websites, and books on American and Canadian Jews. Finally, we add a list of major events in the North American Jewish Community.

The Soul of Judaism

The Soul of Judaism
Author: Bruce D. Haynes
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1479811238

Explores the full diversity of Black Jews, including bi-racial Jews of both matrilineal and patrilineal descent; adoptees; black converts to Judaism; and Black Hebrews and Israelites, who trace their Jewish roots to Africa and challenge the dominant western paradigm of Jews as white and of European descent. The book showcases the lives of Black Jews, demonstrating that racial ascription has been shaping Jewish selfhood for centuries. It reassesses the boundaries between race and ethnicity, offering insight into how ethnicity can be understood only in relation to racialization and the one-drop rule. Within this context, Black Jewish individuals strive to assert their dual identities and find acceptance within their communities. Putting to rest the notion that Jews are white and the Black Jews are therefore a contradiction, the volume argues that we cannot pigeonhole Black Hebrews and Israelites as exotic, militant, and nationalistic sects outside the boundaries of mainstream Jewish thought and community life. it spurs us to consider the significance of the growing population of self-identified Black Jews and its implications for the future of American Jewry.

Jews in American Politics

Jews in American Politics
Author: Louis Sandy Maisel
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780742528802

Joseph Lieberman's Vice Presidential nomination and Presidential candidacy are neither the first nor last words on signal Jewish achievements in American politics. Jews have played an important role in American government since the early 1800s at least, and in view of the 2004 election, there is no political office outside the reach of Jewish American citizens. For the first time, Jews in American Politics: Essays brings together a complete picture of the past, present, and future of Jewish political participation. Perfect for students and scholars alike, this monumental work includes thoughtful and original chapters by leading journalists, scholars, and practitioners. Topics range from Jewish leadership and identity; to Jews in Congress, on the Supreme Court, and in presidential administrations; and on to Jewish influence in the media, the lobbies, and in other arenas in which American government operates powerfully, if informally. In addition to the thematically unified essays, Jews in American Politics: Essays concludes with an invaluable roster of Jews in key governmental positions from Ambassadorships and Cabinet posts to federal judges, state governors, and mayors of major cities. Both analytical and anecdotal, the essays in Jews in American Politics offer deep insight into serious questions about the dilemmas that Jews in public service face, as well as humorous sidelights and authoritative reference materials never before collected in one source. The story of the rich tradition of Jewish participation in American political life provides an indispensable resource for any serious follower of American politics, especially in election year 2004.

American Jewish Desk Reference

American Jewish Desk Reference
Author: American Jewish Historical Society
Publisher: Random House Reference
Total Pages: 664
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

This all-encompassing reference book covers virtually every subject pertaining to Jews in the United States. The sheer volume of information on the subjects and people relative to the Jewish experience in the United States is what makes this book so impressive. Arranged by subject -- from Feminism, Intermarriage and Conversion, Rituals and Celebrations, Business, Education, and Sports to Art and Entertainment -- chapters include A-Z and chronological listings of events, people, and more.Included in this book are descriptions of the many noteworthy Jewish Americans who had a profound effect on our country, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Harvey Milk, Calvin Klein, Peggy Guggenheim, Mark Rothko, Woody Allen and Gloria Steinem, just to name a few. This book brings together the issues and figures of contemporary Judaism in the United States in an adult manner unlike any other reference book of its kind.

The Jews’ Indian

The Jews’ Indian
Author: David S. Koffman
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2019-02-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1978800886

Winner of the 2020 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore​ Honorable Mention, 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize​ The Jews’ Indian investigates the history of American Jewish relationships with Native Americans, both in the realm of cultural imagination and in face-to-face encounters. These two groups’ exchanges were numerous and diverse, proving at times harmonious when Jews’ and Natives people’s economic and social interests aligned, but discordant and fraught at other times. American Jews could be as exploitative of Native cultural, social, and political issues as other American settlers, and historian David Koffman argues that these interactions both unsettle and historicize the often triumphant consensus history of American Jewish life. Focusing on the ways Jewish class mobility and civic belonging were wrapped up in the dynamics of power and myth making that so severely impacted Native Americans, this books is provocative and timely, the first history to critically analyze Jewish participation in, and Jews’ grappling with the legacies of Native American history and the colonial project upon which America rests.